Mortgage Lending and Servicing

The residential mortgage lending and mortgage servicing industries are experiencing waves of changes. Business practices that were in place for decades were replaced and lenders and servicers in the residential mortgage market must now comply with more complex and stringent requirements that continue to evolve.With the enactment of the Dodd-Frank Act and the establishment of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), mortgage lenders, investors and mortgage servicers face an increase in regulatory scrutiny, enforcement and litigation risks. Noonan & Lieberman centers its practice on helping mortgage lenders, mortgage investors and servicers manage their legal risks.We created a unique compliance and transaction program that provides cost efficient legal services for small and medium sized mortgage lenders and mortgage servicers that helps our clients achieve their business objectives. Click MortgageCompliance.Law for more on our compliance and transaction program website.

Regulatory Compliance

We advise mortgage lenders, investors and servicers on compliance with federal and state regulatory requirements. Whether setup as a traditional brick and mortar operation or a fintech firm, our objective is to help clients operate in compliance with all applicable rules and agencies guidance.

Our attorneys work with clients to develop, and conduct periodic reviews of, compliance management system, controls, policies and procedures to ensure they comply with applicable legal requirements. We advise and assist clients in the development, design and review of loan documents, loan modification and forbearance agreements, disclosure forms, consumer notices, new mortgage products and services in compliance with applicable regulatory requirements.We work together with clients’ compliance personnel, internal or external auditors, consultants and senior management in conducting periodic reviews or internal compliance investigations. We conduct state law surveys for clients that have multistate operations and provide clients comparative federal and state requirements.Our attorneys provide federal (e.g. CFPB, OCC, FDIC, NCUA and DOJ) and state regulatory exam support including, exam preparation, ongoing exam support, assist clients in responding to exam findings and advise on remediation. We also assist clients in responding to consumer complaints, in responding to federal and states regulatory inquiries and in communicating with federal and state regulatory agencies on all matters touching clients’ operations.

For depository institutions and CDFIs that are members of the Federal Home Loan Bank (FHLB) System, we advise clients on compliance with Acquired Members Assets (AMA) programs’, such as, the Mortgage Partnership Finance (MPF) and the Mortgage Purchase Program (MPP), origination, underwriting, selling and servicing guidelines.

Joint venture agreements, including affiliate business arrangement in compliance with RESPA

Marketing services agreements

Mortgage Insurance (MI) agreements

Participation agreements

Repurchase letters demand, rebuttals and repurchase agreements

Repurchase agreements

Telemarketing services agreements

Third-party vendor services agreements

Underwriting and delegated underwriting agreements

Warehouse line agreements

We help clients identify legal risks and offer alternatives to avoid or mitigate risk. Our attorneys also assist in performing comprehensive due diligence reviews of counterparties and of purchased financial assets, both pre-closing and post-closing. Our firm leverages our attorneys’ knowledge and experience in the mortgage related litigation and dispute resolution to assist clients in developing and negotiating transaction agreements.

Litigation

We provide a broad range of litigation services to mortgage lenders, investors and servicers, including prosecution and defense of mortgage industry agreements, defense of consumer litigation, class action defense and federal and state appellate litigation (including appeals of administrative decisions). We represent clients in residential and commercial foreclosures. We also represent clients as creditors in consumer and commercial bankruptcies.We are able to leverage our attorneys’ knowledge of regulatory compliance and transactional work to augment our representation of clients in litigation prosecution and defense.Click Litigation for more information on our litigation services.

Public Policy

Our firm is committed to engage in public debate concerning policies that affect the mortgage industry. We represent clients and industry participants as amicus curiae counsel in mortgage industry related cases and help clients provide comment to lawmakers and regulators on proposed rules and regulations.

Noonan and Lieberman keeps you current on litigation news with regular email updates focusing on important and emerging trends in federal and state case law.